Old Cold War frontiers, once guarded by guns and barbed wire, were consigned to history today, as nine mostly former Soviet-bloc states joined Europe's border-free zone.
Visiting Algeria, French President Nicholas Sarkozy is trying to put aside controversy over their colonial past and concentrate on the increasing economic ties between the two countries.
The rising cost of energy and food pushed Spain's EU harmonised inflation rate to an 18-month high of 4.1 percent in October and the government expects it to remain at that level going into the New Year.
